I have been busy reading Syed Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi (Ali Mian) (RA)'s Tareekh-e-Dawat-o-Azeemat for many years.
My progress has been extremely slow.
I bought the books around 2000 and I am just finishing the fourth volume.

Writing of the series took even longer.
It began in 1954 and finished in 1989.
That is thirty five years.

Why did it take so long to write and why does it take long to read it?
There will be several reasons but the chief amongst them is the following.
Ali Mian RA chose to live mentally and spiritually in those times that he was writing about.
This made the writing slow and the resultant books are not easy to read for they take a long time to assimilate.
These are not mere history book - these are Islahi books too.
While reading them a person has to go throw an spiritual process.
That is not an easy task.
That is a difficult task.

One another implication of this bit of info is that Ali Mian RA's books are very difficult to assail.
Hence the west has simply ignored them.
They simply can not deal with them.

We must make the best use of this bit of info.

Personally it took me several attempts to finish the first volume.
I shall read the same chapters again and again and then get exhausted and leave the book for a long time.
I have finished the first volume twice and I am sure I have to do several readings more of the same.

Recently I finished the second volume and the third.
Second one is about Imam Ibn Taimiyyah RA and the third about Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti RA, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya RA and Hazrat Makhdoom Sharfudding Yahya Muneeri RA.

Fourth one is about Imam-e-Rabbani Mujaddid-e-Alf-e-Thani Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi RA.

There are so many things that I can talk about all of these personalities but shall not do so because all those goodies are cluttering my communication channel.

But I must add that I felt enormous love for Ali Mian RA for writing this series.

Deoband falls later in the same series of events that include Imam-e-Rabbani RA, Shah Waliullah RA and others.

Imam-e-Rabbani RA adopted the following modus operandi.
He campaigned with the influential people in the courts of the then kings and managed to persuade the power that be to adopt Islamic ways as far as the latter could do.
He was successful in his attempts.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

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We need help of Allah SWT at every moment of life. Particularly a believer is acutely aware that he or she can not take even a single step without His help. We need Islam to navigate every second of our life. No one has better explanation of Islam than Deoband.

I have to say the above because the real purpose of the present thread was to discuss those issues where Deoband has not done its due.

There are a myriad such issues but I never came close to discussing them. There was fear. Fear of being termed a saboteur or an internal enemy.

Twin issues of monumental importance in this regard are, firstly, a predilection in Deoband attitude towards not accepting any good in alternative explanations of Islam and secondly not to take any criticism at face value.

But somewhere my deepest feelings might have beyrayed themselves. I say this because one day I got a shock when a very assertive and active Mufti told me that the news has gotten around that I am resentful of Deoband.

Darn! I do not resent Deoband. I shall, Lord willing, never will.

But that is what the impression got around.

Of course there nothing alarming about it for this sinner is really a small fry.
And if you are a small fry for good you are small fry for bad.
I can do only small damage to the Deen of Islam.

But even this will be misunderstood by the establishment.
Thus I have to be forthright once again - I am a Deobandi.
Even if Deoband outcasts me.
Not that they have any such plan, to the best of my knowledge.

Then there is this issue of the points that Deoband is not covering.
In that regard I am determined to keep pestering Deoband to take notice of issues faced by Muslims in modern life.

No, Deoband has not done enough on that front.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

Deoband is a school of thought, an interpretation of Islam and a revival movement of Islam.
There are other similar efforts.
I shall not go into comprehensive specifics of these other efforts and their attitudes towards Deoband.
But it is inevitable that they will adopt a varying degree of competition and even resentment towards Deoband.
Some will adopt very openly hostile attitude.
They will try to do harm in various ways.
Most benign of these ways will be academic.
Be that as it may.
It does not mean that we get discouraged or distracted from our task.
At the end truth shall prevail and hence our task is to stick to the truth with our life.
To make our course correction is not a privilege that we should bestow on our enemies.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

The Jum'a yesterday came with a miracle.
Our Imam made a, mildly, political speech before the Friday Sermon.
He said that the Indian government has very nefarious designs about Muslim personal law.
I hope Deoband wakes up for good.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

Yesterday evening, on November 10, 2017, an Islamic conference was held in the main auditorium of the Aligarh Muslim University that is called the Kennedy Hall.

Conference was organized by "Students of AMU'. These are basically Salafi students using the euphemism. Clearly Barelwi scholars will not head towards this conference, Jama-at-e-Islami scholars would. So would the Deoband scholars.

This year Maulana Khalilur Rahman Sajjad Nomani Sahab was on the dias. I was in a fix whether to go to the conference or not.

I try to implement Islam in my life as much as I can and given the circumstances it is difficult enough. In fact most of my close friends feel that I am inclined towards things Islamic to such levels that would be termed foolish not only for a modern man but even for a person from AMU. To make the long argument short I am disposed towards Islam to my utmost limit and I have decided firmly and solemnly not to transgress its limits nor to allow anything beyond Islam in my life. May my Lord Most Kind accept my intentions.

So when I need info regarding Deen I do seek it from the scholars - Ulama.

In view of these admissions I feel that I do not need those kind of reminders that not only Tablighi Jama-at functions upon and that Maulwis usually dish out. This is what was happening in the conference when I reached the venue around 9.00 PM.

The conference was scheduled for 8.00, after Isha Prayers. I went one hour late so as to miss earlier speakers and get to Maulana Nomani's sermon. But it so happened that someone else was speaking and the topic was the same old oft-repeated theme of how irreligious we infidels of India in general and AMU in particular are.

I lasted for about two minutes in the auditorium. To the onlookers it must have seemed like less than a minute. I beat the famous hasty retreat.

My hesitation before going to the conference ws precisely the same. It is wonderful that students are organizing such conferences and we do need to work rather hard on our Deen. Even I have to work a lot on my Deen. But then there is the question of priorities. We need to improve our Tajweed, we need to improve our Salah, we need to introduce more Islam in our worldly life but we also need to take care of our worldly matters.

If we ignore the worldly matters then the world will start dictating to us a method that is decided by the world at large and not Allah SWT and Rasoolallah SAW. In fact that is precisely what is happening. The world is giving us what looks like goodies like freedom, openness and progress and it is dishing us out rubbish. Our youth is falling for it and he and she are not with us but the world.

Unfortunately the world has the means to not only better sell its idea but also to implement and even impose it.

Our religious establishment, including Salafi, is miserably positioned on this front. So is our own Deoband establsihment. It is no exception.

Still I went to the programme because of the following reason. Maulana Nomani is a rare Maulwi who tries to look at the worldly issues that Muslims face today. Indeed his Pir Zulfiqar Ahmed Sahab Naqshbandi DB made a foray into Burma during the troubled times for the Rohingyas. It is a different matter that he had to leave that country but he at least tried to be present in that country when a section of Ummah was facing horrendous fate there.

In Deoband Maulana Marghoobur Rahman Sahab RA was Amir-ul-Hind abd today Maulana Muhammed Usman Sahab Mansoorpuri Sahab DB is the Amir-ul-Hind. Unfortunately this is merely a titular and nominal and ceremonious title given by our own people to a person from amongst us in a function organised by us. In no way it extends to anything that is either effective or substantial or meaningful for the Ummah in general and Indian part of the Ummah in particular.

Similarly Jami-at-ul-Ulema-e-Hind is some sort of a semi-cultural-religious organization that does take up significant tasks like rehabilitation of riot affected Muslims and defending those Muslims who rot in Indian jails for trumped up charges of terrorism. In India of today this is really important as well as necessary to do this kind of thing but this falls short of the real task at hand. The real task at hand is to organize the resources of Indian Muslims to get their constitutional due in India.

In India the constitution give Muslims equality with the other citizens but this notional, abstract, legal equality has neither translated into equity in last seventy years of independent India nor there is any sign that it will do so in next seventy years.

This task, to get equity for Muslims of India, has to be done by Muslims of India and being a sizeable groups of Ummah they have to contribute their might towards solving the problems of the rest of the Ummah. Unfortunately they are so far unable to take care of their own interests - let alone taking care of the rest of the ummah.

Logically the task of taking care of worldly affairs of Indian and global Muslims should fall upon the Aligarh branch of Muslims for they were the ones who focussed upon worldly matters while the Deoband branch focussed on religious education once Indian Muslims failed in their task of dislodging the British from India.

But when Aligarh has not succeeded in her task then the problem will naturally shift to other functional part of Muslim Ummah - the religious and theological segment. That is Deoband.

Even other Deoband can not shy away from this task because in someways no one but the theological branch can take the lead. Modern secular west has made inroads into our Shariah space and only theological establishment can take lead to address problem because we have no political establishment bothering about this task.

On my part I have been constantly trying to communicate both with Aligarh people as well as Deoband people to come together to deal with this crucial problem of dealing with the worldly matters of Indian part of Ummah and Ummah in general but to no end till today.

Attitude of Aligarh remains that it is the religious establishment that is responsible for the ills of Ummah. The theological establishment on the other hand thinks that it is neither their problem nor it is in line with their lofty dignity to degrade themselves with lowly task of solving worldly problems of Ummah.

But just because I got out of the Kennedy Hall in disgust it does not mean that I have given up or I am exhausted of disappointed. I am in the field for good.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

The headline screams that after tax fraud, sex scandals and heart surgery Silvio Berlusconi is back.

We have a moron as the president of the USA.

Earlier we had a series of buffoon like presidents there.

In India we have a prime minister whose USP, unique selling proposition, is Muslim hatred.

If we are living in a world where such people can capture the top positions in very significant countries then what is stopping Muslims from producing their own leaders?

Don't the Deoband people think that they, or at least the believers, are the most intelligent people?
Why are the believers not taking the steps to take care of their worldly interests?

We remember when Marathas created chaos all over India then Hazrat Shah Waliullah NM sent a letter to Ahmed Shah Abdali in Kabul to address the problem and the latter did take of the problem in an exemplary manner.

I am not saying that Deoband should came to the ground in a practical struggle but what stops them from being on their toes in addressing the worldly problems of Ummah at an academic level?

It is true that they have designated Hazrat Maulana Usman Sahab Mansoorpuri DB as Amir-ul-Hind, it is true that Madani uncle-nephew duo are active in addressing the Muslim problems but their efforts are just minuscule in face of the monumental proportions of the problem at hand.

The only hurdle in their path, in my view, is the physical danger that will ensue if they open their mouth. Honestly speaking Allah SWT has not given us any guarantee against these kind of dangers. Rasoolallah SAW never assured us of safety in this world. In fact the Noble Qur'an tells us we must take the requisite risks in order to avoid inordinate risks that will ensue if we ignore our duties in this world like punishing the wrong doers.

Moreover this perception of danger from enemies of Islam an Muslims is over blown. Dr Zakir Naik took much bolder stands and many people feel that he should have come back to India to face the music. But be that as it may. If he can say the most risky thing then Deoband canand should say the lesser risky thing like the protection of worldly interests of Muslims of India.

The political dispensation at the center in India has been encroaching upon not only the life space of Muslims but even Islam in general and Deoband in particular. We do not have international students presence now in Deoband as it used to be earlier.
By being passive about the increasingly decreasing personal space for Islam and Muslims Deoband is caught in a circle that is very self defeating.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

Our guides and custodians of our Deen, the Elders and Ulama, do not want to deal with the worldly matters affecting Ummah.

They do not want to meddle in political, economic, military, business, commerce, industry, science and technology affairs.

They only want to focus on Deen and theology and social and cultural issues come into the frame only as a side effect.

In fact even Hadith, Fiqh and tafseer are internal matters between Ulama otherwise for public their responsibility is restricted only upto Baghdadi ( or Noorani) Qa-ida.

Outside of our theological establishment hardly anyone is convinced about this stance on part of the former.

In fact even in theological establishment the Salafi are not so hard wired about the modern worldly education and matters being taboo. Strange when you think that they are considered more orthodox than us.

For the record I am amongst those who are not convinced about the wisdom of our theological establishment cutting itself off from worldly affairs.

You cut-off from the world at your own expenses.

When you become passive and non-challant about any of your rights then immediately encroachment starts upon your life space.

In all fairness ruling is the job of rulers.
Administration is the job of administrators.
Business is the job of businessmen.
Industry is the job of industrialists.
Trade is the problem of traders.
Commerce is the problem of commercial institutions and Banks.
Economy is the business of rulers, industrialists, traders, commercial institutions.
Politics is the headache of politicians.
Military is the prerogative of military commanders.
Science is the fiefdom of scientists.
Technology is the country ruled by the technocrats.

Yet rulers can not be oblivious to any of these.
And when rule is not the hands of Ummah then everything will fall into pieces.
That is the situation we face today.
In India and the world over.

When one department of Ummah is not functioning then either another department takes this additional responsibility otherwise Ummah suffers and suffers only.

That is what is happening today.
The tasks that should have been done by the rulers are lying undone.
Someone has to fill in the vacuum.

If Aligarh comes in and fills in the vacuum - welcome.
If Deoband comes in and fills up the vacuum - welcome.

Aligarh is not in a very clear state of mind at the moment.
Unfortunately the same is true for Deoband.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

In my opinion, Deoband can't do anything more for the benefit of Muslims than what it already has done and neither can Aligarh, or any other instituition. Academia is NOT the solution, especially not one so heavily influenced with western ideals, values and principles.

The above quotes from the twitter thread have higlighted a problem correctly, but have not given any practical solution. How are the ideologues (the ulama) to deal with material aspects?

Universities, Businesseses, Industries, trades, scientists, technology etc can only influence within their sphere of influence, which is quite limited.

The fact is the materialistic problems are state level issues. Only a ruling state can deal with these issues, there is no other way.

For example, Erdogan has many shortcomings and many will have many issues with him, but he has been more of a mujadid than any alim since the beginning of this centurybecasue he had the state power. Form a turkish society that was far from islam, many now despise ataturk, the hijab has been slowly reintroduced, azan is back in arabic and Islamic marriage is once again realised, their economy has become much stronger etc. Which Alim or institution has done anything anywhere near this amount of change from a highly secular society? We can all disagree with his foreign policies and politics, but within his state he has benefited Muslims of any nation more than anyone else.

There is NO solution, we can try and complain as much as we want, other than a state. This is precisely why khilafah was seen as such an important and fundamental Muslim need, even a corrupt one, amongst the scholars of old. Without a state things will only get worse. It doesn't even need to officially be a "khilafah", ANY state with a generous Muslim leader is better than non. Just look at how much turkish society has changed for the better (as far as Muslims are concerned).

But these days most people in their stupidity start mumbling about utopia as soon as a state is mentioned.

Even in history, the Muslims had an extremely hard life UNTIL Madinah was ruled by Muslims and expanded to rule over most of arabia.

Quote:

In all fairness ruling is the job of rulers.
Administration is the job of administrators.
Business is the job of businessmen.
Industry is the job of industrialists.
Trade is the problem of traders.
Commerce is the problem of commercial institutions and Banks.
Economy is the business of rulers, industrialists, traders, commercial institutions.
Politics is the headache of politicians.
Military is the prerogative of military commanders.
Science is the fiefdom of scientists.
Technology is the country ruled by the technocrats.

Yet rulers can not be oblivious to any of these.
And when rule is not the hands of Ummah then everything will fall into pieces.
That is the situation we face today.
In India and tye world over.

May I reiterate my stand point? Let us take the example of problems of Muslims north-west of India before partition.

There was an ideologue - Allama Iqbal. He proposed that the regions in north-east of India should get independent administration (not a country).

Then thought of who will be able to put the plan in action for the Allama was every thing - ideologue, intellectual, academician, thinker, philosopher, Mufassir, inspiration but not a leader. So he identified a leader, a Qa-id. A Qa-id who would be soon Qa-id-e-Azam.

Muhammed Ali Jinnah tried his best to solve not merely the problems of the Muslims of north-east but whole of India. Problem was nearly solved when Nehru sabotaged the Cabinet Mission Plan.

That is when Jinnah and the League went for partition.

Of course the deal was bad for Muslims of India after partition. Hence in India it is not appropriate to talk of this synergy between the Allama and the Qa-id.

In the world today we need similar synergy today.
We got have intellectuals, academicians, Ulama, ideologues.
Then we need people who are man of action and can do the things on ground and deliver the goods.

It will be wonderful if we had a state or a caliphate or even a conglomeration of Muslim countries.

Till we have that kind of force and power we have to do with whatever we have. I do agree with your example of Erdugan. Our academics and ideologues have to request, guide, cajole and convince such people in power to do the needful for Ummah. Even entities like GCC, OIC can be of immense benefit. Even coming together of Turkey and Saudia will be of immense help.

In fact talk of a Khilafah at the moment will be counter productive because every single Muslim country ruled by a kind will be alert and not co-operative in this matter for Khilafah simply begins by diluting his authority and ultimately decimating and abolishing it. Please undertsand tha even talking about democracy is a big no-no in case of any kingdom. Honestly speaking we did not come to this world to spend our energies on democracy unless the benefits are more than efforts.

Clarification of ideas can come from academics only. Ideas are not born in thin air. There are people behind them. Without implementable ideas leaders are useless. Because of this we do need ideas and ideologues. That is what I have been saying.

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Muslim Ummah aspires to attain a rightful and honored place among the civilizations of the world and make her full contribution towards international peace, progress and happiness of humanity.

In the world today we need similar synergy today.
We got have intellectuals, academicians, Ulama, ideologues.
Then we need people who are man of action and can do the things on ground and deliver the goods.

It will be wonderful if we had a state or a caliphate or even a conglomeration of Muslim countries.

Till we have that kind of force and power we have to do with whatever we have. I do agree with your example of Erdugan. Our academics and ideologues have to request, guide, cajole and convince such people in power to do the needful for Ummah. Even entities like GCC, OIC can be of immense benefit. Even coming together of Turkey and Saudia will be of immense help.

Totally Agree. I wasn't disagreeing with you in my last post. In fact I agree with a lot of what you say. I was just adding my thoughts.

Yes we should and have to try with whatever capabilities each of us has.

However ultimately, it seems to me that just as happened throughout history, unfortunately the ummah situation will not change without massive war and bloodshed, struggle and sacrifice of time, wealth, sweat and blood. That is unfortunately just the way of the world throughout history with any nation.

The top administration of Darul-uloom Deoband has been directly engaged about some of the recommendations in this thread. Insha'Allah will provide updates as and when it is convenient to make them public.

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We have suggested a conference call with the Ulama and if it is agreed, Insha'Allah we will try to extend an invite to you and Dr76.

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